Commissioners, Council Members Outline Top Priorities For New Year

With the start of another new year upon us, we took the opportunity on Monday to contact a few Owen County officials, each of whom readily shared their top priorities/goals for the county in 2014.

Owen County Commissioner Donnie Minnick said one ongoing goal will be to improve county roadways and bridges with the monies allotted. He said five smaller bridges throughout rural Owen County were recently submitted for bid to bridge contractor CLR, Inc.

“My goal is to get as many roads repaired and resurfaced as we can and to replace and rebuild as many bridges as we can,” he said. “That’s been my thing all along, I’m going to help the highway garage get things done. We went from eight roads (repaired in 2012) to 15 (in 2013) and we’re supposed to have a little more money to work with (in 2014).”

Minnick also mentioned the efforts of a recently formed committee to determine the future use or sale of county-owned property.

“Myself and two (county) council members will decide the future of some ground that we own as far as what we’re going to sell – do we sell some timber, all to help fund a second court,” he explained. “Ultimately the decision belongs to the commissioners.”

Owen County Councilman Nick Robertson also hopes to find a way to improve county roadways.

“We need to find a way to get (the Owen County Highway Department) some additional financing, whether it be through wheel tax, or from the county general (fund) to help make up for some of the loss they’ve had in the last few years,” Robertson said. “I think people have no problem with raising the wheel and surtaxes as long as we use it for road repairs.”

Robertson said the county’s economic development and tourism commission are both on the right path and hopes they play a vital role in 2014.

“I hope they can continue to help bring things into the county, I’ve been real pleased with what they’ve done already,” Robertson said.

Owen County Council President Patty Steward said the current council members work well together, while challenging one another to achieve the tasks concerning fiscal matters of the county.

“In 2014 we will need to keep on top of legislation that impacts the revenues to the county. We will need to address funding a second court for 2015,” she said. “We will also focus on continued funding for roads, continue to monitor our current tax revenues to fund the 2014 budget and continue to strengthen our wage and salary structure. Of course, every year also has the challenge of predicting and setting a budget for the upcoming year.”

Among other things, commissioner Marc Ruble remains focused on finalizing a lease agreement to benefit both the county and local youth.

“My main goal is to get Cathleen’s Gymnastics into the armory, that’s something I’ve been really pushing for,” he said. “I know that will be a good thing for the community as a whole, especially for our kids.”

Attracting new businesses and improving infrastructure will also remain focal points in the new year.

“Of course we want to keep improving our infrastructure, our roads and our bridges, because we still have several bridges that are almost on that critical list. Improving these roads is an ongoing process, it’s going to take time and the roads aren’t all going to be perfect overnight,” Ruble said. “Now that we have sewer on State Road 43S, we can continue to encourage new businesses to locate out there.”

Ruble hopes communication among officials continues to improve to ensure that the main goal remains doing what’s best for the community as a whole.

“I want to listen to citizen complaints and help them the best I can, I’m always willing to listen and see if and where we can make improvements,” Ruble said. “We all need to work together to make it the best county we can.”

Councilwoman Angie Lawson noted how balancing the county’s budget with minimal new revenue for 2014 will be an even bigger challenge than in 2013, which saw additional funding requests for repairs, a building purchase, equipment and staffing.

“There is much discussion at the state level about doing away with business personal property tax. While that is attractive to businesses in Owen County and around the state, the local loss of revenue to the township, towns, library, schools and county operations would amount to approximately $68,688,260.00 with no discussion of how to recover from that kind of revenue loss for local government,” she explained. “That makes trying to balance our budget a major challenge.”

She also mentioned the additional cost of a second circuit court, ranging from furniture and staffing to equipment costs.

“It will mean additional costs to a budget that is already at its maximum and that isn’t one-time money but a new budget going into the future. I feel the challenge to the council for 2014 will be how to fund the new judge and court and also how to keep up with the aging buildings that the county owns and being able to pay for the maintenance costs of these buildings, all without major tax increases,” Lawson said. “We are very lucky in Owen County to have a working county council that meets in committees and in regular meetings, discusses alternatives and looks for the best possible solution to the problems that we face. I feel very fortunate to be part of the process with a very community-oriented and dedicated group of people and I have faith we will find ways to do more with less just as we have all had to do in our personal lives.”

Working within the constraints of an ever-tightening budget while also moving forward will remain tough, but doable tasks in 2014, according to county councilman Anton Neff.

“Overall, while we have been more fortunate financially than other counties, we still continue to experience the squeeze of lower revenue and higher costs. We will need to double-down on our creativity in solving problems and tackling projects. I hope we make it through, and complete, 2014 on good financial footing,” he noted. “We will be finalizing the funding details for the support staff and resources of the second court. This includes both for the final months of 2014 and the full 2015 budget year. We will also continue reviewing all county governmentowned property. With that, we hope to have a more efficient approach to managing our assets and freeing up resources to use on high-priority facilities needs.”

Another economic development project and improvements as they relate to the condition and management of our county’s road system also remain high on Neff’s priority list for 2014.

“With the upcoming state legislative session,” he said, “I am looking forward to working with fellow elected officials in fighting for legislation that helps Owen County Government serve its citizens – such as more road money, and increased funding for Probation and Community Corrections, to name a couple.”